ST-09 (Ren Ying) Man's Prognosis

What does ST-09 Ren Ying do?

ST-09 regulates qi and blood and lowers rebellion, benefits the throat and neck, and alleviates pain — and it carries THREE separate classifications, more than almost any point in this library.

• Regulates qi and blood and lowers rebellion
• Benefits the throat and neck — the local action
• Alleviates pain

Three classifications at one point, all held in our own category records:

• Point of the Window of Heaven — one of the ten, and one of the three whose name does not contain tian
• Point of the Sea of Qi — with DU-14, DU-15 and REN-17
• Meeting Point of the Stomach and Gallbladder channels

Its Window of Heaven membership is worth pausing on. The ten are BL-10, DU-16, LI-18, LU-03, P-01, REN-22, SI-16, SI-17, SJ-16 and ST-09 — seven carry tian in the name, three do not, and this project has documented several points that do carry tian and are not in the group: BL-07, SJ-15, GB-09. ST-09 is the reverse case — no tian, and a member. Together they establish that the word predicts membership in neither direction.

On the name. “Ren Ying” means Man’s Prognosis, sometimes rendered Man’s Welcome. Ying — to receive or welcome — is the same character as in ST-05 Da Ying, and both points sit beside a palpable artery. The name records a diagnostic practice: the pulse at this point in the neck was taken and compared with the wrist pulse in classical diagnosis, which is what “prognosis” refers to. It is one of the few point names in the system that describes a procedure rather than a position, function or image.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action, location and translation records; all ten Window of Heaven points and all four Sea of Qi points queried and counted, and the BL-07, GB-09, SJ-15 and ST-05 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-09 Ren Ying used for?

ST-09 is used for sore throat, asthma, goitre, dizziness and flushing of the face. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — five entries.

• Sore throat
• Asthma
• Goitre
• Dizziness
• Flushing of the face

An honest note, and three of these need one stated plainly.

• GOITRE MEANS AN ENLARGED THYROID GLAND, AND IT REQUIRES MEDICAL INVESTIGATION. Its causes range from iodine deficiency to autoimmune disease to nodules and cancer, and they are distinguished by blood tests and imaging, not by examination. Thyroid disease is highly treatable when diagnosed and consequential when it is not. A new or growing lump in the neck, difficulty swallowing or breathing, or a hoarse voice requires prompt assessment. This record documents a classical indication and makes no claim that acupuncture treats goitre or any thyroid condition — the entry sits in the historical literature because endemic goitre was widespread, and because the thyroid lies exactly where this point does. Our SJ-13 record carries the same framing.
• ASTHMA CAN BE FATAL and requires medical diagnosis and prescribed management. Worsening breathlessness, or an attack not responding to reliever medication, is a medical emergency.
• Sore throat with difficulty swallowing or breathing, drooling, or a muffled voice is a medical emergency — and a sore throat lasting more than a week or two, or one-sided, needs assessment.

The dizziness entry has its own significance here. This point sits beside the carotid, and pressure on the carotid sinus can slow the heart and cause faintness in susceptible people — a physiological fact about the region rather than a claim about the point, and the reason dizziness in this indication list is worth reading alongside the needling section rather than apart from it. Sudden dizziness with headache, double vision, weakness or slurred speech is a medical emergency.

How it is combined. With ST-10 Shui Tu below on the same border — our ST-10 record places that point midway between this one and ST-11. With REN-22 Tian Tu at the suprasternal notch, also a Window of Heaven point. With LU-10 and LU-11 distally for the throat. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the LU-10, LU-11, REN-22, SJ-13, ST-10 and ST-11 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-09 Ren Ying located?

ST-09 is on the neck, level with the tip of the Adam’s apple and one and a half cun out from it, at the front edge of the big strap muscle — where the carotid pulse is felt.

• Level with the tip of the laryngeal prominence, 1.5 cun lateral to it
• At the anterior border of sternocleidomastoid
• ST-10 Shui Tu lies below, midway between this point and ST-11 Qi She

The artery is part of the location, and that is the whole character of this point. The common carotid lies immediately deep and lateral here, and its pulse is readily palpable at this level — which is precisely why the classical texts used it for diagnosis, and precisely what our needling record warns about. This library has documented four points where the pulse both fixes the location and is the named hazard: ST-09 here, ST-05 with the facial artery, ST-42 with the dorsalis pedis, and SJ-22 with the superficial temporal. LU-09, the classical wrist pulse position, belongs to the same family.

Which side of the muscle matters. Our record specifies the anterior border of sternocleidomastoid. The great vessels of the neck run in the carotid sheath in front of and deep to that muscle — so this point is on the side where they are, unlike our SJ-16 Tian You record, which specifies the posterior border and where the vessels are not. That distinction is anatomical and exact, and it is the difference between two points a short distance apart.

On the name. “Ren Ying” — Man’s Prognosis. As noted above, the name records the classical practice of comparing the pulse here with the pulse at the wrist.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the LU-09, SJ-16, SJ-22, ST-05, ST-10, ST-11 and ST-42 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 137): Level with the tip of and 1.5 cun lateral to the laryngeal prominence, in the depression between the anterior border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and the lateral border of the thyroid cartilage. Note: the carotid artery lies just deep to, and can be readily palpated at, the anterior border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle. This point therefore lies between the carotid artery and the lateral border of the thyroid cartilage.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 147): Level with the tip of Adam's apple where the pulsation of common carotid artery is palpable, on the anterior border of m. sternocleidomastoideus.

How is ST-09 Ren Ying needled, and what does our record warn about?

Our own record OPENS with the caution — “AVOID PUNCTURING THE COMMON CAROTID ARTERY” — before it gives any angle or depth, and it names the vessel specifically rather than generically. Perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch is then recorded. That ordering is retained here because it reflects what matters at this point. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Our record states first: avoid puncturing the common carotid artery. It lies immediately deep and lateral, and its pulse is what our own location record uses to find the point.
• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch.
• Moxibustion: NOT stated at this point. Our ST-10 record, immediately below on the same border, does state it. The difference is in our data and nothing is asserted about why.
• Regional anatomy: the common carotid artery, internal jugular vein and vagus nerve lie together in the carotid sheath deep to the anterior border of sternocleidomastoid; the carotid sinus — a pressure-sensitive dilatation at the carotid bifurcation — sits at about this level; the thyroid gland lies medial, and the larynx and trachea medial to that.

This is among the most anatomically consequential points in the library, and the record says so plainly. The carotid sheath contains an artery, a large vein and a cranial nerve together, and the carotid sinus is pressure-sensitive: firm pressure there can slow the heart and cause faintness in susceptible people. That is a documented property of the region, stated as a fact about the anatomy rather than a claim about the point — and it is why our record leads with the vessel.

Nine points in this library carry an explicit arterial caution, counted by querying every needling record: ST-05 (facial), ST-09 (common carotid), ST-42 (dorsalis pedis), SP-12 (femoral), SJ-22 (superficial temporal), HT-01 (axillary), and LU-08 and LU-09 (radial). ST-09 and HT-01 are the two that name a specific vessel, and finding them corrected an earlier undercount in this project: a query written to match the commonest phrasing had missed exactly those two.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-09 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the neck. No case report naming ST-09 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the arterial caution, retained verbatim and in its recorded order; every needling record re-queried with a corrected pattern and the nine explicit arterial cautions counted; the ST-10 moxibustion statement compared), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-09, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-09. Where the point appears it is one component of a throat, thyroid or blood-pressure protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Blood pressure is where a reader will meet claims near this point, because of its position beside the carotid sinus. Nothing in our record supports a blood-pressure indication — our indication list is sore throat, asthma, goitre, dizziness and facial flushing — and no such claim is made or implied here. Hypertension requires medical management, and the carotid sinus fact stated in the needling section is a description of regional anatomy, not a therapeutic proposal.

What this page can state with confidence. ST-09 carries three classifications — Window of Heaven, Sea of Qi, and a two-channel meeting point — more than almost any point here. It is one of the three Window of Heaven points whose name does not contain tian, the mirror image of BL-07, SJ-15 and GB-09, which carry tian and are not in the group. Its record names the common carotid specifically, and it is one of only two in this library to name a vessel that way. And it records no moxibustion where its immediate neighbour ST-10 does.

Its name records a diagnostic practice — the pulse here compared with the pulse at the wrist — which makes it one of very few point names describing a procedure rather than a place or a function.

The goitre warning is the operative content. An enlarged thyroid needs blood tests and imaging, because its causes cannot be told apart by examination.

A note on searching for it. “ST 9”, “S 9” and “Renying” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — “Renying” matches personal names and place names. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication, location and needling records; the Window of Heaven and Sea of Qi sets counted, and every needling record re-queried for arterial cautions, against our own data).